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Mexican hitmaker Peso Pluma has signed with CAA in all areas. The corridos singer has had a massive year leading regional Mexican music’s global movement, all while making history along the way. In 2023 alone, Peso Pluma entered 24 songs on the Hot 100, including the global smash hit “Ella Baila Sola,” his collaboration with […]
Creative Artists Agency has appointed nine managing directors and changed up its agency board membership.
The new managing directors include Rob Light, Howard Nuchow, Joe Cohen, Michael Levine, Joel Lubin, Maha Dakhil, Chris Silbermann, Tiffany Ward and Paul Danforth. CFO Carol Sawdye and chief legal officer Hilary Krane will continue in their roles.
The managing directors will work alongside CAA co-chairman and CEO Bryan Lourd, co-chairmen Kevin Huvane and Richard Lovett and president Jim Burtson on varying strategic business and operational matters.
The agency board will work with the CAA co-chairmen and president “on ensuring the continued strength of the company’s highly regarded culture of service, collaboration, and opportunity, built for personal client service,” including dealmaking, training and development and innovation. The move marks the latest rework for the agency since its sale to Artémis, the investment firm controlled by François-Henri Pinault, last September.
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Members of the agency board include Katie Anderson, Emma Banks, Lorrie Bartlett, Matt Blake, Alan Braun, Austin Brown, William Brown, Libby Bush, Ben Dey, Jaime Feld, John Garvey, Liz Gray, Sloan Harris, Jeff Krones, Franklin Latt, Brandon Lawrence, Michelle Kydd Lee, Joe Machota, Lisa Joseph Metelus, Matthew O’Donohoe, Praveen Pandian, Dan Rabinow, Rachel Rusch, Roeg Sutherland, Nick Thimm, Natalie Tran and Ida Ziniti.
“Today’s announcement highlights not only the strength, momentum, breadth and depth of today’s CAA, but the incredibly exciting promise of our future, with two new teams of exceptionally talented, proven leaders, committed to serving our clients and colleagues,” said Lourd. “We have always been clear in our mission – to deliver world-class personal service to world-class clients. With our expanded corporate leadership structure and an entire company of the world’s best dealmakers, creative thinkers and career representatives, CAA has never been better positioned to help clients capture the best opportunities and navigate the challenges of today’s media and sports industries.”
This article was originally published by The Hollywood Reporter.
Entertainment and sports agency Creative Artists Agency (CAA) will relocate its Nashville office in late 2025, occupying nearly 75,000 square feet across two floors in the mixed-used district Nashville Yards, being developed by Southwest Value Partners and AEG.
CAA’s new Nashville office, located at 955 Church Street in Nashville, will feature indoor-outdoor work spaces, listening lounges, private terraces on each floor, three levels of dining, retail and entertainment space, as well as meeting hubs and a large outdoor vegetated deck overlooking Nashville Yards. CAA employees will enjoy access to open plazas, courtyards, and green spaces; ample parking, valet, and executive car services; and proximity to the luxury Grand Hyatt Nashville and newly renovated Union Station Nashville Yards.
“Guided by our colleagues in Music, CAA opened our first office in Nashville in 1991, immediately making an impact on Music City that continues today,” said Howard Nuchow, co-head, CAA Sports, in a statement. “With more than 3,400 employees across 25 countries, CAA’s track record of success and growth in the representation of entertainment and sports talent and brands has solidified our leadership position around the world. The move to Nashville Yards demonstrates our commitment to Nashville and the Southeast, while providing our employees, clients, and guests an inspiring environment that captures the spirit of Nashville, one of the most significant sports and entertainment destinations in the world.”
CAA’s Nashville operations currently include more than 130 employees working in music touring, music brand partnerships, music marketing, digital media, sports, brand consulting, property sales, and CAA ICON. In the past year alone, CAA has booked top tours for Tim McGraw, Shania Twain, Keith Urban, Willie Nelson, Zac Brown Band, The Chicks and Carrie Underwood. The company has also worked to aid in raising up a new crop of headliners including Jelly Roll, Cody Johnson, Brett Young, Kelsea Ballerini, Carly Pearce, Whiskey Myers and Koe Wetzel, while expanding its roster with new signings including 49 Winchester, Warren Zeiders, Hailey Whitters, Luke Grimes, Wyatt Flores, Priscilla Block, Dylan Marlowe and Larry Fleet.
CAA has nabbed British musician YUNGBLUD for worldwide representation. The singer, songwriter and actor (born Dominic Richard Harrison) recently concluded the North American leg of his YUNGBLUD – The World Tour this summer. He was formerly represented by UTA in North and South America. YUNGBLUD began his musical career with a 2018 self-titled EP and […]
CAA has signed Alesso, the agency tells Billboard. Alesso was previously represented by UTA, who will continue to represent him in the European Union, with CAA repping him in all other territories. The Swedish producer has been a marquee name in the global dance/electronic scene since breaking out amidst the EDM boom of the early […]
Demi Lovato has made the move to CAA. The Grammy-nominated singer, songwriter and actress, who was most recently with UTA, is now represented in all areas worldwide by CAA.
Lovato rose to fame as a Disney star in roles on Camp Rock and Sonny with a Chance. The artist released her first album Don’t Forget in 2008, which peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard 200, and has since received two Grammy nominations, four Billboard Music Awards nominations and three Brit Award nominations for her work. All seven of Lovato’s studio albums have appeared on the Billboard 200 chart and reached the top 10.
Lovato has accumulated 36 songs on the Billboard Hot 100, including four top 10 titles: “This Is Me,” with Joe Jonas (No. 9 in 2008); “Skyscraper” (No. 10 in 2011); “Heart Attack” (No. 10 in 2013); and “Sorry Not Sorry” (No. 6 in 2017). Eight of her singles have been top 10 hits on the Pop Airplay chart, from 18 overall chart titles. Two singles, 2012’s “Give Your Heart a Break” and 2017’s “Sorry Not Sorry,” reached No. 1 on that chart.
Throughout her career, Lovato has earned 9.7 million equivalent album units, sold 23.9 million song downloads and her songs have collectively registered 7.7 billion U.S. on-demand streams in the U.S., according to Luminate.
Next month, Lovato will release Revamped, featuring rock versions of the artist’s hit songs. With all new vocals and production, the 10-track album will allow Lovato to reimagine her career-defining songs with a fresh perspective that reflects her current artistic vision.
Lovato has also been celebrated for her deeply personal documentaries, 2017’s Simply Complicated and 2021’s Dancing with the Devil. She currently serves as Global Citizen’s official ambassador for mental health, with a special focus on vulnerable communities around the world and, in 2013, Lovato became a New York Times best-selling author with a book of affirmations titled Staying Stong: 365 Days a Year.
Lovato will next be seen on MTV’s Video Music Awards where she’s nominated for two awards and will perform.
Billboard recently reported that Lovato parted ways with manager Scooter Braun in July. Lovato signed with Braun and his SB Projects firm in 2019. She was previously managed by Phil McIntyre of PhilyMack. One source close to the situation told Billboard it was time for Lovato to go in a new direction, even though she was thankful for her time with SB Projects.
Lovato will continue to be represented by Rob Cohen at Carroll Guido Groffman Cohen Bar & Karalian and align Public Relations.
Justin Bieber‘s and Scooter Braun’s success has been inextricably intertwined since 2008 when Braun discovered the then-13-year-old singer on YouTube, got him signed to Usher’s record label and became his manager. Braun made Bieber’s career, and vice versa, and their once-flourishing business relationship was arguably the catalyst for Braun adding Ariana Grande, Demi Lovato, J Balvin, Idina Menzel and many others to the management roster at his SB Projects, and the subsequent sale of its parent company Ithaca Holdings to Korean K-pop entertainment giant HYBE for $1.06 billion in April 2021 and his appointment as HYBE America’s CEO that followed.
But since then, Braun has moved his focus away from his management business and onto growing HYBE, shepherding massive deals like its $300 million purchase of hip-hop company Quality Control in February. That shift is one factor that’s had Bieber actively looking at how he might extract himself from that relationship with the help of his new music lawyer, David Lande, and prompting Braun’s other star clients to exit as well, sources tell Billboard. Grande is also planning to part with Braun on friendly terms, more because she’s “excited to go in a different direction” and because she’s “outgrown him” than because of his C-suite distractions, a source close to her says: “It’s time for something new.” Menzel, Balvin and Lovato departed earlier this year, on good terms as well, sources say.
But even for the world’s biggest superstars, leaving your manager is easier said than done — and Bieber and his lawyer are still exploring all their options, sources tell Billboard, with a full split not guaranteed. Bieber’s latest moves have included firing his agency, CAA, and hiring a new music lawyer — Lande at Ziffren Brittenham — to replace Aaron Rosenberg, whom Braun had helped hire. (Michael Rhodes, a partner at the Cooley law firm remains Bieber’s general counsel.)
Lande, these sources say, has been looking at how to extricate Bieber from the management agreement with Braun, but there’s a major complication: Bieber is still under contract for about four more years, following a series of amendments to their deal made three years ago, sources say, and standard management contracts tend to favor the manager. To get out entirely free of obligations, an artist must often show that their manager breached the agreement — which generally includes acting outside of an artist’s best interests, such as financial impropriety like siphoning funds. And only in the most extreme examples does a manager being unavailable or unreachable count. (Were that the case, Braun’s team at SB projects would likely give him significant cover: Braun’s lieutenant, Allison Kaye, has been running management as president of SB Projects since 2016.) Sometimes there are performance metrics, but given Bieber and Braun’s stature in the industry, that’s unlikely, music lawyers say.
“If you’re talking about a case where the artist is just no longer content with their current manager and wants to get out of their management deal, they have a high bar to clear,” says entertainment attorney Larry Katz. “The only chance an artist would have is if they can demonstrate a well-documented pattern of failure by the manager.”
That said, many managers and lawyers agree that it is not in anyone’s best interest to hold an artist in a contract against their will. “Slavery is not a thing,” says one manager.
A scenario like this usually results in the artist and manager striking a new deal that involves a lump sum paid to the manager; a commission on future monies made from deals in which the manager was involved; a sunset clause that gives the manager a gradually decreasing percentage of earnings from such deals — or, likely, a combination of these.
Perhaps because of these complications, sources familiar with some of Bieber’s business dealings say he is focused on resolving his predicament with Braun and would not begin a serious search for new management until that objective is completed — or may not seek a new manager at all.
Otherwise, Bieber would need to shoulder the cost of paying two managers until his agreement with Braun either expired or was dissolved.
A new manager would also face limited options for finding new income opportunities. Bieber is still under a recording contract with Def Jam as he currently works on his seventh studio album, meaning there’s no new multi-million-dollar label deal on the immediate horizon. He also sold his publishing, artist royalties from his master recordings and neighboring rights to Hipgnosis for over $200 million earlier this year. And he remains under contract with AEG Presents, which has promoted his concerts since his inaugural My World Tour in 2010.
Under that AEG deal, Bieber likely owes the promoter any advances paid for his tours that haven’t been recouped. This would likely include an upfront signing fee paid to AEG to promote Bieber’s tours, as well as a per-show guarantee — some or all of which would be recoupable against the tour’s ticket sales. These financial obligations are usually settled somewhere between the early planning of the tour and while it’s in progress, but Bieber’s situation is more complicated. That’s because he has repeatedly rescheduled or canceled touring plans over the past three years due to the coronavirus pandemic and personal health issues, which could mean that his deal with AEG has yet to recoup its obligations.
Still, sources agree Bieber remains an appealing client, because of the kind of influence that comes with his superstar stature.
As for the status of Bieber and Grande’s relationship with SB Projects, sources close to Braun’s camp say both artists are under contract but are currently working out new deal structures to account for Braun stepping into his larger role as HYBE America CEO. Sources close to Bieber and Grande say they are also working out new deal structures for the many business ventures they undertook while at SB — in preparation for their potential departures.
“It might take several years for Bieber to wrap up whatever deals he has with Braun and SB Projects, but he’s still a very attractive client,” says a major talent agent executive unassociated with the artist. “He’s young, he’s a proven superstar and he’s motivated to work and make money.”
Additional reporting by Dave Brooks and Elias Leight.
Amid a production halt during a double strike, major talent agency CAA is undergoing a round of layoffs.
About sixty employees are set to be impacted — including agents, executives and support staff — within the next week, a source tells The Hollywood Reporter. The figure is a relatively small percentage of the thousands of staffers that work at the Century City-based representation giant led by Kevin Huvane, Richard Lovett and Bryan Lourd.
Multiple departments had been evaluating staffing levels even prior to when the Writers Guild of America strike began on May 2. When performer’s union SAG-AFTRA joined the strike on July 13, Hollywood settled in to a long summer as the dealmaking ecosystem ground to a halt.
Several talent agencies have cut staff in the ensuing months as the guilds faced off with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which bargains on behalf of studios. For instance, Endeavor, the owner of fellow “Big 3” agency WME and fashion-focused IMG, estimated on August 8 that the impact of the actors’ and writers’ strikes would be about $25 million per month in revenue.
Talent and literary agency Verve, which reps many scribes, cut about 60 percent of its assistants and 3 agents in late May. And Big 3 firm UTA had already made a round of cuts, which it described as a single digit percentage of a workforce that totals 2,000 employees, in February.
Hollywood’s agencies went through retrenchment and conducted notable layoffs or furloughs during the COVID-19 shutdowns in the middle of 2020, also at a time of a widespread production halt. At that time, in July 2020, CAA said it cut 90 agents and executives and further furloughed 275 assistants and other staffers.
Since that time, CAA made the most consequential move in the Hollywood talent agency space, acquiring rival firm ICM in a megadeal that closed last June and added 425 of its employees to the payroll, with 105 staffers cut. At the time, the combined company was said to have 3,200 employees in 25 countries.
Deadline earlier reported CAA’s planned cuts on Thursday.
This article was originally published by THR.com.
Primary Talent International has announced a surprise decoupling with Creative Artists Agency, less than a year after CAA acquired the UK booking agency through a blockbuster $750 million purchase of its parent ICM Presents in June.
ICM Presents bought the 30-year old booking agency in March 2020, just days before international concert touring was suspended for more than a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. That acquisition — in which Primary would retain its name and office — came just months after ICM Partners sold a minority stake in the agency to private equity firm Crestview Partners.
When ICM acquired Primary Talent, ICM CEO Chris Silbermann noted that the 32-year-old company, with clients including The 1975, The Cure, Lana Del Rey, Noel Gallagher, Jack Harlow, alt-J, Dropkick Murphys and Patti Smith, “greatly enhances our ability to serve our clients on a global scale, through added resources, support and even greater opportunities,” noting the agency’s reputation for being “fiercely independent, which we love about them.”
Silbermann added: “We are honored that they believed we were the right partners to help take their clients and their agency to the next levels of success, while retaining their brand and management identity and philosophy.”
Primary Talent asked for a split from CAA in order to “re-establish Primary’s independent status,” one source tells Billboard. Shortly after closing the ICM deal last year, CAA laid off 105 ICM Presents employees from different parts of the company.
An agreement to terminate the coupling was finalized earlier this year in a deal led by Primary Talent managing partner and CEO Matt Bates along with former ICM founding partner and COO Rick Levy. Veteran agent Ben Winchester will continue to serve as a board member along with Bates and Levy.
As part of the new management configuration, the agency has promoted Primary agents Laetitia Descouens, Sally Dunstone, Martje Kremers and Ed Sellers to partner status. They will be joined by veteran agent Simon Clarkson, who will be based in Los Angeles. The agency, which currently numbers 35 employees, expects to announce additional agents to their growing ranks in the coming weeks.
“The pandemic changed the landscape of the music touring business, and we felt it was beneficial to return to our roots as the UK’s largest independent music talent agency,” said Bates. “Adding to the strength and experience of the original Primary agent team, we are excited to bring aboard the next generation of talented agents to join as founding partners. In this new incarnation, Primary will be even better positioned to support the evolving careers of our artists and guide them wherever needed.”
CAA has signed Mexican pop group RBD for worldwide representation in all areas, Billboard has learned. Specifically, the L.A.-based agency will represent the band — now comprised of Anahí, Christian Chavez, Dulce María, Christopher von Uckermann and Maite Perroni — in areas such as acting, brand consulting, touring, podcasting and fashion/beauty.
News of the signing comes on the heels of RBD’s highly-anticipated announcement of a reunion that includes a 26-date global Soy Rebelde Tour with stops in Mexico, U.S. and Brazil. The stint will mark the group’s first time hitting the stage together since disbanding in December 2008 after their last show in Madrid.
The Live Nation-produced trek will kick off in El Paso, Texas, at the Sun Bowl Stadium on Aug. 25 and will make stops in key U.S. cities such as Chicago, New York, Miami and Los Angeles. When RBD last toured, in total it grossed $72.5 million and sold over 1.5 million tickets, according to figures reported to Billboard Boxscore.
“It’s a new era that makes us really excited and it’s a new opportunity to share the stage once again and feel a unique energy,” Perroni previously told Billboard. “There’re cycles in life and each one of us had to focus on our careers as actors and musicians and that meant we had to give those projects time, energy and a lot of dedication. It also allowed each one of us to grow professionally and personally. Now, the time [for the reunion] is perfect because we’re now more conscious, more mature, we’ll enjoy it from a different perspective now as adults.”
According to CAA, the group will also release new music in the spring. On the Billboardcharts, RBD has a total of seven entries on the Billboard 200 chart including Rebelde, Celestial and Nuestro Amor, and eight entries on Top Latin Albums with six hitting the top 10. Over on Hot Latin Songs, the band has 10 total entries and out of those, five hit top 10.
RBD is managed by Guillermo Rosas, who’s also executive producing the Soy Rebelde Tour.
